The present invention relates to the construction of industrial furnaces and is more particularly concerned with the structure of heating elements for such furnaces. More particularly, the invention is directed toward the structure and arrangement of a flame breaker assembly for a tubular elongated heating element of an industrial furnace.
Heating elements of the type to which the present invention relate generally comprise a burner located at one end thereof and a tubular elongated heating element or jet pipe which passes through or in close proximity to the furnace chamber and which has the burner located at one end thereof. Arranged at the opposite end of the jet pipe is a flame breaker which extends from the end of the jet pipe remote from the burner.
In such known heating devices, a flame breaker may consist of several coupled sectors which impart a helical path for gas flowing through the jet pipe or heating element. Such flame breakers may be made of ceramic material. With a design of this type, heat losses which are generated may be relatively high and thus there occurs rather high energy consumption. Furthermore, flame breaker designs of the type mentioned may involve the risk of breakage particularly where vibrations in the furnace occur which may be caused, for example, by imbalances in the blower means provided in the furnace for circulating the furnace atmosphere.
The risk of damage or breakage will exist to a greater degree particularly in those areas of the furnace which are directly adjacent to the burner. Breaking parts tend to fall on the burner at periods when the jet pipe is excessively stressed due to the formation of improper combustion. It has been found that portions of the pipe may burst or at least show hairline cracks. When such cracks appear, gas flow or leaks will develop between the furnace chamber and the jet pipe. Portions of burned flue gas may contaminate the atmosphere of the furnace chamber and as a result the furnace atomsphere will be adversely affected thus impeding the procedures which must be conducted in the furnace, such as, for example, carbonization, normalization, tempering, annealing, etc.
It is of further disadvantage that looseness in the coupling of the sectors of the flame breaker can cause considerable noise due to the flue gas which passes thereover.
In accordance with the present invention, it therefore becomes advantageous to provide a heating device which will operate with lower heat consumption and which will furthermore reduce the risk of breakage of the flame breaker and therefore reduce the risk of resulting damage to the jet pipe.